Stage Kiss
by dontletyourlifeflyby
Summary: Ana Vargas and Karen Cartwright meet on a plane, only to discover that they've both been cast in the same new, edgy Broadway show that may bring them closer than they ever imagined. AU, microchapters. Strong language, may bump to M later. Karen/Ana
1. Chapter 1

Ana Vargas stared out the plane window and realized how glad she was to be leaving. Iowa. _Fucking_ Iowa. She'd spent a few of her summers there as a kid, visiting her grandparents and running around in wheat fields and swimming and playing in the sun. And running into wasps nests. And getting the worst sunburns of her life. And skinning her knees. And missing her dance classes. And not seeing any kids other than her brother, who would gather the boys from the next farm over and pester her until she went back to they pool. Whenever she got back to Miami, with the beach and the city and the noise and the glass and the theatre and the _people_, she always felt better. She wanted to leave Iowa behind. And then her brother decided to go to Iowa State for grad school while he got an internship at some hospital something-or-other, so obviously she had to go to his graduation or risk being the shittiest little sister ever.

In all honesty, leaving New York almost pained her that time. She'd _just_ snagged a role in a new show. It'd been tried out of town and they were moving it to Broadway. She'd be part of the Original Broadway Cast. Not just the tour cast, but full-on, balls to the wall, Broadway. Her dream. Okay, so she was a swing, but she was a swing in the Original Broadway Cast, which was pretty damn great. The girl occupying seat 12B finally sat next to her, pretty with long brown curls, brown eyes, and the skin of a doll. She was probably a cheerleader in high school or something; one of those perfect things that everyone bowed in front of. Probably going to New York to see her rich, banker-tycoon fiancé or something… Her thoughts were cut off by the nasally voice of an over-tired flight attendant telling them how to open the emergency door in case of a _very rare_ water impact, pull the mask down, secure yours first, blah, blah, blah… And then she caught sight of the script the girl slid out of her purse.

"Wait. Can I see that for a second?" she asked suddenly, not really thinking about how crazy she probably sounded. The girl looked up at her with her wide eyes and blinked for a moment. "Um, sure, it's just… I got cast in this show and I need to…" the girl explained quickly. Ana took it into her hands and flipped through the pages, examined the cover, looking more like she was examining a diamond than a script. She set it back on the girl's lap before reaching into her leather backpack and pulling out her copy of the exact same show. "Okay, so this may be the craziest coincidence of my life."

This lead to them talking excitedly for about ten minutes about how much they adored the show, how excited they were to start, and all of that lovely first-time-meeting-a-castmate small talk, but it turned out that this girl (Karen, apparently, which she had to admit was the kind of name you'd expect from an Iowan) was the lead. As in, the almost-sex-on-stage, most-beautiful-girl-ever romantic lead with the jaw-dropping solo. The girl had no idea who was playing opposite of her, but at least Ana had met her before everything cliqued off and the swings got exiled into the corner to watch and learn (and learn, and learn, and learn…). Karen was nice, and if Ana wasn't wrong, there was definitely a tiny bit of chemistry there between them.

"So, Cartwright, I may be wrong, but I think this show will be a hell of a time," she said with a small smile.

"Agreed," Karen said as the plane took off and they got one step closer to home, the city of dreams.


	2. Chapter 2

Flirting may have been natural for Ana, but she couldn't remember the last time she'd done it that much consciously before the flight to New York. Karen Cartwright, however, was certainly worth the effort. Giggling, putting her hand on the girl's leg, totally _not_ checking her out, getting them both glasses of wine… She may not have reciprocated as much as Ana would have liked, but she certainly didn't shut her out. They'd ended up deciding that once Ana was studied up on the other lead, they could have a read through at a café. Karen ended up choosing some quiet place the other had never heard of, and when she showed up exactly two minutes late (just enough that they would start to wonder but not enough to be too rude), the girl was already tucked into a booth towards the back. "Hey," Ana said as she slid onto the cool leather seat with a warm smile, pulling her script out of her bag. "I see you already got the coffees?"

"Yeah," Karen said with a small smile, "I figure every actress likes a good latté." Ana took a sip and widened her eyes. "Damn, that's good. I may have to trust your taste."

Karen nodded. "Always a good idea. So, have you studied up on Mona yet?" she asked, almost teasingly. She knew that Ana was studying seven parts, including a lead, so it'd be a while until she was off book for anything.

"Why do you think we're here, Cartwright?" Ana replied, putting her elbow on the table and resting her chin on her hand.

"Okay, fine, that's fair," Karen said before she started flipping through her (perfectly highlighted and color coded) script to find scenes. "We could do a few things, I mean the buildup would be easy. And the first scenes. Later is where the character development really picks up and…" She trailed off, seeming to get lost in the script.

"Yeah, you didn't strike me as a giant love scene person."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Karen asked, widening her eyes.

"Well, do you want to prove me wrong?" Ana stared at Karen for a long moment, eyebrow quirked, a lazy smile on her lips. Karen immediately slipped into character, starting to recite her lines.

"If you'd come with me, we wouldn't have a problem."

"Maybe I can't."

"Why?"

"Because maybe I'm scared."

Karen met her eyes for a long moment, and Ana felt her heart skip the tiniest beat against her will. It was acting. Two characters interacting. Definitely not her and the girl from the plane.

"You don't have to be, Mona. It's just me."

They held the moment for as long as possible before Ana realized she had completely forgotten the next line and glanced down at her script. Karen giggled softly. "Can't do love scenes hmm?" she teased.

This time it was Ana's turn to roll her eyes. "Okay, Cartwright, fair point. I mean, I guess there's a reason they gave you the job."

Karen smirked. "Damn straight. But you're in the show too."

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "I suppose I am."

They stayed there for a while, ordering different coffees and trying basically every pastry on the menu (although they'd probably regret it once bootcamp came around), reading scenes, giggling and joking, and Ana was slowly realizing that Karen wasn't going to be one of those snob lead actresses, and maybe there'd be more of these lovely little lunches to come.


End file.
